Texas Men’s basketball falls to Kansas 64-59 (Notes & Quotes)

The Horns fall to 8-9 overall and 0-4 in Big 12 play, the first time since 1997-98 (Tom Penders’ final season at Texas) that UT has opened Big 12 play with four losses.

Texas was led in scoring by Sheldon McClellan with 18 points, while Julien Lewis had 11 and Jonathan Holmes had 10. Lewis pulled down seven rebounds to pace Texas.

Texas is now 1,666-988 all-time in its 107th season of basketball.

The Longhorns outshot Kansas 44.6 percent to 39.2 percent, had 14 turnovers to KU's 15 but UT attempted only eight free throws (and makes just two) while Kansas was 21 of 25 from the charity stripe.

Kansas now leads the all-time series with Texas, 21-7. Texas coach Rick Barnes is now 6-15 against Kansas while at UT.

Javan Felix, Lewis, Ioannis Papapetrou, Holmes and Cameron Ridley started on Saturday. The last time this starting lineup was used was against Mississippi State (11/21). Felix and Holmes are the only Horns to start all 17 games this season. Lewis has started in 14 consecutive games.

Holmes reached double figures in scoring for the seventh time this season with 10 points (4-5 FG) in 14 minutes, tied a career high in steals (three) and made a 3-point FG for the fourth consecutive game (1-2 3FG).

Sheldon McClellan reached double figures in scoring (game-high 18 points) for the 15th time this season and first time in three games.

Lewis tied a career high in rebounds (seven) and reached double figures in scoring (11 points) for the 11th time this season and 21st time of his career (49 games).

Texas pulled down just nine rebounds in the second half and got outscored 8-2 in the final 2:36.

Texas Quotes

Julien Lewis

On his final 3-point attempt, with Texas down by three points and 13 seconds to play: “It was a tough shot but I make a lot of tough shots every game. I had a good look and a chance to tie the game but I missed it.”

On the Texas game plan: “We are not getting the looks we are supposed to get. Our plan was to get the ball inside and get (Kansas center Jeff) Withey in foul trouble but we didn’t make that work. ”

Sheldon McClellan

On the Kansas defense and the end of the game: “I take a lot of tough shots so that wasn’t an issue. We need to take care of the ball late in the game, take things possession by possession. In the past few games we have had the lead late but couldn’t finish. We can’t relax, and we have been when we have the lead at the end, and try to do things we can’t be trying.”

On the team’s attitude: “We are not going to give up – we will keep fighting. We just have to get over the hump and win some of these close games.”

Jonathan Holmes

On his two fouls in the first 1:23 of the game and how that effected the UT game plan: “We were supposed to attack Withey and push him around and bully him some in the paint, but the fouls in the first half didn’t allow for that strategy. We can’t take too much of a positive from this game because we didn’t win. We have to make the plays we need to at the end of games.”

Coach Rick Barnes

“This is the same record playing over and over – and it’s getting pretty old. We do a lot of things well, but it goes down to a few possessions and can’t execute the way we need to at the end.

On the late miss by Lewis: “Julien has made that shot a lot – actually I was kind of surprised that he didn’t make it.”

“When we were playing well, we played defense the way we can. It’s a fine line – we want to play hard but we have to play smart. We just didn’t get it done.”

On the game plan and Kansas’s late-game shooting prowess: “We wanted to go at Withey. We wanted to post him deep and we didn’t do that as well as we wanted to early. The 50 percent they shot in the second half was because they got the run-outs they needed from their good defense.”

“We spend so much time waiting for our wings to get open and that leaves our point guards out there too long by themselves.

We didn’t do a very good job getting to the line.

On McClellan: “He was a little hesitant offensively, and he needs to have more than one rebound. I did like that he was talking out there – that shows me that he is engaged in what we are trying to do.”

On the frustration level: “Offensively, the coaching staff is still disappointed that our guys don’t understand about getting our space on the floor. I guarantee you that our practices are much more physical than this game was today, but we just don’t play in the games the way we do in practice.

“I know what we have to do to get better. Is it disappointing – yes? I could tell you and tell the team that we are five possessions from being 13-4, but that doesn’t help us. There is no way we have ‘lost’ this team – we have too much of the season left to play and these guys just won’t let that happen.”

Kansas Quotes

Kansas center Jeff Withey

“We have a mature team and we have been in some games like this before. We pulled together and did the things we had to do at the end.”

“Texas is tough defensively and they showed how tough they are today. We have been in a little of an offensive funk but we are – thankfully – still winning. We have been there before and we knew what to expect. When we got hit, we took the blows and punched back.”

Kansas guard Ben McLemore

“Texas played hard on defense in the first half, so I needed to get more involved in the second half. My teammates got me the ball and eventually I got going.”

Kansas coach Bill Self

“This was a great win for us because we didn’t play our best. We were miserable the first 10 minutes of the second half, but in the final 10 minutes we played like a mature team. That first 10 minutes, we were about as bad as I’ve ever seen us. It was a muddy track all day – we never got any rhythm and Texas played great. We just had some guys step up at the end.”

“It’s such a fine line between winning and not winning. Last year we knew where the ball is going (J’Covan Brown) but this year they are so balanced and they have so many different options. Hey, Texas is the youngest team in the nation – and they are getting better with every game.”

“I think Withey had a pretty good game, but other than that we were average at best individually. We just found a way to get it done as a team.”